UT baseball: Longhorns keep rolling at CWS

OMAHA, Neb. — Texas began its trip to the College World Series by digging itself into a hole. The Longhorns have nearly climbed out of it.

Nathan Thornhill pitched eight shutout innings and UT took advantage of some early-game Vanderbilt sloppiness to beat the Commodores 4-0 at TD Ameritrade Park on Friday. It was the Longhorns’ third victory in a row after losing their CWS opener, and it sets up a rematch with Vanderbilt on Saturday.

The winner will advance to the best-of-three CWS championship series, which begins Monday.

UT scored all of its runs in the first two innings. In the first, Vanderbilt starter Tyler Ferguson walked two batters and hit two more, and the Longhorns also were aided by a ball that C.J Hinojosa hit off the second-base umpire for a hit.

In the second, Vanderbilt outfielders misplayed back-to-back triples by Zane Gurwitz and Brooks Marlow, leading to two more runs.